Pressure Mounts for Broward Sheriff to Resign Following School Massacre

On 'The Ingraham Angle,' Florida State Rep. Randy Fine adds his voice to mounting calls for Scott Israel to step down or be fired

With pressure mounting on Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel to resign in the wake of this month’s Valentine’s Day shooting at a high school in Florida, a Republican state lawmaker Monday added his voice to the chorus.

Rep. Randy Fine (pictured above, far right), appearing on Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle,” said he signed on to a letter calling for Israel’s suspension. He also said he supports a subpoena requiring Israel to appear in the state capital of Tallahassee to explain an apparent breakdown in which a school resource officer remained outside Parkland’s Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School while Nikolas Cruz was allegedly gunning down 17 people and injuring others.

“The more we learn about the situation, the more obvious it is that Sheriff Israel needs or resign or needs to be removed immediately … What happened is a disgrace,” said Fine.

Host Laura Ingraham reported on an internal email at the Broward County Sheriff’s Office — confirmed by two sources — urging all staff members to support Israel.

“Sheriff Israel stood with us, and now we must stand with him … It’s important that they know we stand as one,” the email reads.

Ingraham also reported that deputies arriving at the school had orders not to enter unless their body cameras were turned on. But they did not have body cams and did not engage, she said. What’s more, according to Ingraham’s source, the department’s radio communications went down at one point.

Fine said those factors add to questions that Israel should address rather than grandstand.

“If Sheriff Israel wasn’t so busy bloviating on CNN town halls, we might have some of those answers,” he said.

“They knew full well that that shooting was going on inside the building, and I will guarantee something for Deputy [Scot] Peterson, or ex-Deputy Peterson — he will relive that four minutes outside of that building for the rest of his life,” he said.

“That’s against any protocol that I’ve been aware of since Columbine,” he said, referring to a mass shooting at a school in Colorado in 1999. “All officers that I’m aware of are always taught to go in. Don’t be stupid. Go in tactically. But go in. Protect the innocents there.”

Lane also criticized the FBI, which appears to have ignored warnings that an attack by Cruz was imminent. He said the FBI “has dropped the ball for the last several years,” and attributed it to a centralization of operations. He noted that when he calls the field office where he used to work — he gets a recording.